Trump’s illegal National Guard deployment in Los Angeles cost taxpayers $120 million

In August, Governor Newsom’s office filed a federal Freedom of Information Act requesting all documents and records to identify the total expenses incurred to activate the U.S. Marines and federalize the National Guard since June 7. While the federal government has not responded to this request, the California National Guard developed the calculations at the request of the Governor. 

Breaking down the cost

As Trump threatens military deployment to other states, know there are real financial and societal costs. There’s no doubt soldiers deserve to be paid for the time spent on the ground – even if they were mostly waiting around for orders at Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos – but there are better uses of their time and taxpayer funding. 

The entire deployment process was rushed, soldiers early on were forced to sleep on the floors and in the open air, use facilities with no functioning plumbing and were often fighting boredom. 

While less than 20% of the troops deployed to Los Angeles were actually utilized, soldiers were pulled away from their essential civilian duties as first responders, police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses and teachers. Guardsmembers were taken off of specialized assignments – like in California where they were taken off Taskforce Rattlesnake firefighting teams and the Counterdrug Task Force work at ports of entry along the border. 

All of this combined with reports of low morale. 

Taking the Trump Administration to court 

Just Tuesday, California filed a request for a preliminary injunction to block the Trump Administration’s order to extend the National Guard’s deployment in Los Angeles through Election Day.  

On that same day, a federal court granted California’s injunction blocking Trump’s illegal use of the U.S. military as a domestic police force. The ruling makes clear: Trump is breaking the law by trying to create a national police force with himself as its chief. 

How we got here

On June 10, 2025, following President Trump’s doubling down on the militarization of the Los Angeles area through the takeover of more than 4,000 California National Guard soldiers and the unlawful deployment of the U.S. Marines, Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta filed an emergency request for the court to block President Trump and the Department of Defense from expanding the current mission of federalized Cal Guard personnel and Marines. This mission orders soldiers to engage in unlawful civilian law enforcement activities in communities across the region, beyond just guarding federal buildings.